Nibunan movie review: Mild thrills aside, this Arjun film is mostly predictable
Arun Vaidyanathan, who made smashing Tamil directorial debut with Achchamundu Achchamundu, falters with Nibunan. This Arjun starrer gets predictable and tedious beyond a point.
Film: Nibunan
Director: Arun Vaidyanathan
Cast: Arjun, Prasanna, Varalaxmi Sarath Kumar, Suman, Suhasini, Sruthi Hariharan
Rating: 2.5/5
Nibunan, on many levels, is one of those thrillers that don’t fully work to its potential. It works till a point, and just when you start really enjoying its proceedings, it gets predictable and slightly tedious, leaving us not fully satisfied. It’s a whodunit thriller that needed more tension and an actor who could send chills down our spines as the psycho killer on the loose. While you hold on to your seats, scratching your head and wondering who could be the killer, you’re not shocked when his identity is revealed.
Arun Vaidyanathan made a smashing Tamil directorial debut a few years with a film called Achchamundu Achchamundu, a social thriller set in the US and centred on a pedophile. While it wasn’t a box-office phenomenal, it surely made head turns and marked the arrival of filmmaker willing to go against the grain. Four years after his directorial debut, Arun won over audiences and critics by bankrolling Kalyana Samayal Saadham, an adult-comedy about a guy with performance anxiety. Not only was the film well received, it proved that adult comedies need not always have to be about double entendres.
Nibunan follows a police team led by Arjun who plays Ranjith Kalidoss, in pursuit of a serial killer. Arjun suffers from a rare disease, and this is the angle the film doesn’t fully cash in on, for it could have been an excellent thriller if dealt creatively. It’s an angle that’s merely used to prove that the film attempts something different just for the heck of it, to prove to audiences it isn’t another regular whodunit thriller. Sadly, that’s exactly how the film turns out to be, despite showing promise quite early on.
Nibunan is Action King Arjun’s 150th film and it’s a relief to watch him to play his age, even in overtly sophisticated look throughout the film. He doesn’t go around beating bad guys to pulp, but plays his part well and shows he could still impress without kicking butts. Prasanna plays one of Arjun’s team members and he gives the story some comical touch. While some of the jokes work, it’s tough to imagine them laughing and joking around when a serial killer is on the prowl. Agreed, certain cinematic liberties are allowed but a more serious setting, in my opinion, would have worked in the favour of the film.
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